Min? Jien?

BISHOP IN THE UK OFFERS VISION FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH

Dear fellow pilgrims on life's journey, we inhabit a remarkable century, the 21st, which despite the current economic distemper, is witnessing momentous advances in every domain of human knowledge and endeavour, with new discoveries and new applications in science and engineering, in computing and cybernetics, in medicine and bio-technology, in the social sciences, arts and humanities, all of which manifest the limitless self-transcending reach of human experience, understanding and judgement and the cloud of burgeoning possibilities for human deciding, undreamt of by those who've gone before. Indeed, even as we speak, Curiosity is roving among the sand-dunes of Mars, in anticipation of a manned space-voyage to the Red Planet.

With all these exhilarating developments, the Catholic Tradition must engage, the old with the new, in a mutually-enriching critical-conversation. Yet the ordination of a Bishop, as Successor of the Apostles, in communion of mind, will and heart with the Pope, as the chief Shepherd, Teacher and High Priest of the diocese entrusted to him, who, like the Master, must lay down his life for his flock, reminds us that human needs ever remain essentially the same: the need to love and to be loved, the need for a purpose and vocation in life, the need to belong to family and community, the need for mercy and forgiveness, for peace and justice, for freedom and happiness, and most profoundly, the need for immortality and for the Divine.

All these fundamental desires, hard-wired into the human heart: theology expresses in the word 'salvation,' and we profess that every child, woman and man on this planet can find that salvation.

There is a Way - and it's the Truth! It's the true Way that leads to Life, real life, life to the full, a life that never ends. There is a Way, and it's not a strategy, a philosophy or a package-deal. This Way has a Name, because it's a Person, the only Person in human history who really did rise from the dead, a Person alive here and now: Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son Incarnate.

He alone can save us. He alone can give us the salvation our spirits crave. He alone can reveal to us the Truth about God and about life, about happiness and humanism, about sexuality and family values, about how to bring to the world order, justice, reconciliation and peace.

This message of Good News, and the civilisation of love it occasions, we Catholics must now communicate imaginatively, with confidence and clarity, together with our fellow Christians, and all people of faith and good will, to all people ... sorely in need of new hope and direction, disenfranchised by the desert of modern politics, wearied by the cycle of work, shopping, entertainment, and betrayed by educational, legal, medical and social policy-makers who, in the relativistic world they're creating, however well-intentioned, are sowing the seeds of a strangling counterculture of death.

These few words shot around the world in the hours that followed the Bishop's address on 24 September. Thousands of people were following the ordination via the internet. Bishop Egan's words were carried still further by blogs, Twitter and Facebook. It has so often been said that there is no place for the Church in a 21st century defined by i-technology, particle accelerators and biotechnology. Sometimes even Catholics believe this. However, as Bishop Egan argues, the faithful are as crucial to the future of humanity as they have ever been. Yes, some of those who represent Catholicism have committed very grave sins. Yet the Church is still the only place where we can find a sure answer to the needs that are planted so deeply within all of us.

Everyone who has discovered this truth has a God-given duty to lead others to it. As Catholics we need to emerge from a position of defence (and defeat) and confidently present the truth that is our faith. We should not fear those who hold different views but rather seek to engage them, question them and seek to persuade them that human beings are still capable of following that "still more excellent way" proposed by St Paul (1 Corinthians 12, 31) and should not resign themselves to following their worst instincts.

Bishop Egan was bold enough to say that Church-State relationships are not a "live-and-let-live" agreement. The Catholic Church is not asking the State to leave it undisturbed in a kind of private bubble, giving in return its silence when it comes to issues concerning public life. Rather the Church has to transform society so that everyone can encounter and receive Jesus Chirst. This mission the Church must pursue with confidence and hope.